


listen to my heartbeat (it calls for you)

by babygotbaek



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, M/M, also bc sex is mentioned like twice, rated teen & up bc xiu curses three times maybe??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 17:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8455798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babygotbaek/pseuds/babygotbaek
Summary: minseok/jongdae || androids au





	

**Author's Note:**

> day one ;; heartbeat

In a world so dictated by carefully crafted code and circuitry, Minseok valued his humanity more than anything.

He was proud of his mortal origins, always quick to correct anyone who mistook him for an android, and he was proud of the fact that he had never fallen for the charms of artificially created creatures like his friends did. Although Baekhyun constantly fanboyed over the latest droid idols (his current obsession was with the singer and dancer ‘Lay’, the first prototype of his model that had been manufactured in China), and Lu Han bragged about the stamina of his store bought ‘boyfriend’ in bed every chance he got, Minseok was far from impressed.Okay, there were robots who could sing and have sex with you. So? Couldn’t humans do that just as well?

Really, Minseok was just proud, period. He almost took it to the point of bigotry, avoiding any and all possible contact with androids. Bus driver has a wire peeking out from underneath their shirt sleeve? He’ll walk. Cashier moving a bit too robotically for his taste? Self checkout, please. Extremely prestigious job offered straight out of college involving the simple repair and upkeep of droids?

Well.

He wasn’t _that_ proud.

 

⌁

 

Minseok cursed under his breath as a spark licked at his ungloved fingers, red welt instantly forming on the area in question. He resisted the urge to bring his hand up to his lips and try to suck the pain away, instead opting to plaster yet another Hello Kitty bandage onto the affected skin. That was the fifth one that night — he’d have to buy another box on his way home. Maybe he’d go for Power Ranger ones this time.

As he finally finished up the left arm of the machine—it was a project he had been working on for days now, a droid named JD-0921 that had to be shipped out to China next week—and began to tinker with the wires hidden underneath the pale skin of its right one, Minseok tried to ignore the droid’s eyes boring into him. He knew they couldn’t feel, knew they couldn’t think for themselves, knew they were just hunks of metal programmed to do humanity’s bidding, but he couldn’t help the wave of unease that flooded his gut every time one of those mechanical fingers twitched.

It was a good job. Great, in fact. Minseok should’ve been grateful for the fact that he had been accepted into anything at all this soon out of college. He told himself that the job’s high pay, relative simplicity, and flexible schedule made putting aside his prejudice of androids worth it. But tonight—tonight was different. 

Tonight it was talking.

“Why don’t you ever utilize protective padding of some sort on your extremities?”

Minseok blinked, eyes shifting upwards just enough to meet the bottom half of the droid’s face, but not enough to meet its eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to look into them, as he knew they were always cold, lifeless pits never able to mimic the actual eyes. “Excuse me?”

“Your skin,” The droid lifted its finished left arm and pointed at Minseok’s hands. “I mean, human skin in general. It’s so fragile and easily torn apart. Why don’t you wear something so that you don’t have to keep putting those sticky pink pads on your fingers?”

Minseok’s eyes traveled back down to his hands, slowing in his work slightly. “Gloves hinder my movement,” He answered dully, starting his work again. “And, besides, I like these sticky pink pads.”

He—no, _it_ ; Minseok was not going to refer to that _thing_ as a human—scoffed a little. Minseok wondered where it had learned to do that. “Humans are so fascinating,” It murmured back. “With your flabby bodies and useless pride. Honestly, I wonder how a race as weak as you all managed to create something as perfect as me.”

Now it was Minseok’s turn to scoff. “Perfect? Really?”

Although his eyes were still trained on the droid’s arm, Minseok could tell from the mechanical whirring noises above his head that it was nodding eagerly. Yikes, that was a little loud. He’d have to remember to oil his neck after he finished the right arm.

“Of course. We’re stronger, more capable, we don’t need food or sleep, and we’re not burdened by those silly things you call emotions.”

Minseok frowned. “Yes, but we think for ourselves—”

“Inconvenience.”

“—we love—”

“Inconvenience.”

“—we feel—”

“Inconvenience.”

“—we—we have names—”

“So do we.”

Minseok paused. “JD-0921 doesn’t count as a name.”

“But Chen does, no?”

Minseok pressed his lips together. So that's what its name was; he had completely forgotten. “Okay, but—but we…” He stuttered, trying to come up with a reason Chen wouldn't strike off with a single word.

A thoughtful noise left the droid’s throat. “You have a heartbeat.”

In his surprise, Minseok accidentally glanced up at Chen’s eyes. He immediately wished he hadn’t, because who ever had been in charge of its cosmetics and design had done a really, really, _really_ good job. With a strangely feline slant that matched the curled edges of his lips, auburn flecks of gold that danced around in the light, and a frame of long, curly lashes, Chen’s eyes were the prettiest pair Minseok had ever seen. In fact, they almost tricked him into thinking that he was looking into the real thing.

“Your heartbeat,” Chen reiterated, pushing his palm gently against Minseok’s chest. “You have one, I don’t.”

Hand still pressed on Minseok, Chen began to hum mechanically under its breath, the rhythm of the tune closely synchronized with the beating underneath his white muscle tee. Where did it learn to sing like that? Was Chen supposed to be an idol droid? Minseok blinked, dumbfounded, as he tried to remember Chen’s function. He had seen it scrawled it on his forms just a few days ago—why couldn’t he remember?

Maybe Chen was a labor droid. No, that couldn’t be it. Although Chen did have a relatively strong build, its stature seemed much too thin and short to sustain the intense workload of a labor droid. Service droid was out of the question as well. Those were purposefully crafted with bland and unassuming features to avoid distracting the humans they had to work for, and everything about Chen, from a razor sharp jawline to plush, pink lips, went against bland and unassuming.

“Badump, badump, badump, badump,” Chen started lazily as it stopped humming, instead choosing to mimic Minseok’s heartbeat. Its hand snaked upwards to rest on the crook of Minseok’s neck, pressing against the bare skin lightly. Minseok resisted the urge to shiver, thoughts moving away from Chen’s possible function to how eerily warm its fingers felt.

“Hm, I can hear it more clearly over here,” Chen added, almost sounding excited. (Could droids even get excited?) “It’s faster now too.” Chen paused, as if listening for the familiar sound of Minseok’s heartbeat. “Badumpbadumpbadumpbadumpbadu—”

A loud clank interrupted Chen’s low chant, and it took a good five seconds for Minseok to realize that the noise had been him dropping his own pliers. He frowned and felt his face grow hot as he pushed Chen’s hand away from his neck and reached down to pick up his fallen tool. “Stop it, you’re interrupting my work.” He snapped, forcing Chen’s unfinished right hand back down on his work table as he glared at the metal contraption.

And Chen did stop, staying as motionless and silent as he usually did for a good ten minutes. However, soon after those ten minutes, he started up again, whispering ‘badump’s under his breath and tapping along to the beat with his left pointer finger. Minseok grit his teeth and bore it for his long as he could. Think about all the fried chicken you could buy with that shiny paycheck, he thought to himself. Think about Baekhyun’s face when he asks for a leg and you say no. Think about how he’ll sob at Lu Han about it for at least fifteen minutes before finally leaving you alone. And think about the fact that none of this will happen if you give in to your anger and smash Chen into a million fucking pieces, because you will have no job, and you will have no paycheck.

“What’s it like?” Chen asked suddenly, its tapping fingers slowing. “To have a heartbeat, I mean."

“I told you to—”

“I know, you told me to stop it,” Chen interjected flatly. “You never specified what ‘it’ was, though.”

Fucking smartass.

“Oh, how intuitive of you,” Minseok grumbled instead. He yelped as another spark flew up and left an angry mark on his fingers, disappointedly grabbing at the last bandage in his box. Fuck, now he _really_ needed to go to the pharmacy for some more.

“Thank you, I thought so myself.” Chen replied with an impish grin, watching in slight fascination as Minseok ripped the bandage out of its package and wrapped it around his index finger. “You still haven’t answered my question."

Minseok stared straight into those wide, unblinking eyes and pressed his lips into a tight line. “Shut up.”

Chen frowned, which Minseok hadn’t even known it could do. “I was just curious.” It mumbled. “A heartbeat sounds kinda cool.”

Surprisingly, Chen actually followed Minseok’s commands and didn’t speak up once for the entire hour and a half that it took for him to finish the arm. In fact, Chen barely moved, staying completely still until Minseok nudged at his rib to tell him that he was done for the night.

He wasn’t that bad, Minseok supposed. He was even a little endearing. He just took a little getting used to.

It wasn’t until after Minseok had swiped his card to leave the lab, claimed one of the many open seats on the mostly empty bus home, and rested the side of his head on the vehicle’s window that he realized he had referred to Chen as ‘he’.

 

⌁

 

Three days later, Chen excitedly told Minseok that he had been approved to have a working heartbeat installed throughout his circuitry, one that simulated a real human’s pulse. Minseok pretended to be surprised at the news. And Chen pretended to not notice Minseok smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> i've gotten around to writing again !! i have major writer's block, though, so i won't be updating my actual fics until i finally get my shit together. meanwhile, enjoy this nice little one drabble series that no one asked for (´･ω･`) also, i made a [twitter](https://twitter.com/beaglelinings) specifically for ao3 so that i can keep y'all updated?? if u want, u can follow it & we can be frens (˶‾᷄ ⁻̫ ‾᷅˵)


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